Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Mavenir Systems published the findings of an independent study, carried out by mobileSQUARED, checking the impact of OTT chat and voice over IP applications such as Skype, iMessage, Facebook Message, Google Talk and WhatsApp on traditional operator-based SMS and voice services.

The study, based on interviews with 31 global mobile operators, found that ".. one third of operators already see traffic and revenue decline and three-quarters of operators are worried about losing revenues to this new group of mobile application providers .. The largest single group, 32.3 per cent of respondents thought operator traffic (from messaging, voice and video calling) would decline between 11 and 20 per cent and a further 20 per cent expected a decline of 31 to 40 per cent over the next 5-10 year period .. 42 per cent of operators say that they will roll-out IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based services to offer RCSe and VoLTE, while 45 per cent of operators think that other similar technologies would enable a quicker route to market"

When KPN tried to compensate itself for the reduced revenues lately (see "KPN [Uses DPI] to Charge Extra for VoIP, Messaging and Streaming Video" - here) it led the Netherlands to be the first European country with a Net Neutrality law (here).

Gavin Patterson (pictured), chief markets analyst & head of data at mobileSQUARED, said: “The mobile landscape is changing as users embrace messaging of all kinds that enable them to seamlessly message a multitude of devices. This study confirms that lucrative messaging revenues are already impacted and operators are assessing ways to deliver core-network services in the all-IP environment. Rich Communication Ecosystem (RCE) applications are one example of how mobile operators can overcome the hurdles they face.”

See "Study on The Threat to Mobile Operators’ Voice and Messaging Revenues" - here.